Sunday, August 5, 2012

Diamond major De Beers plans to adopt digital marketing

Encashing the growing opportunity in mobile and computing
space, diamond major De Beers planned to adopt digital marketing as
part of its plans to reach the target audience, a top official has
said.
"Globally, the marketing strategy we adopt is different. Two years
ago, digital marketing may not be important for India, but today
digital mode of communication, is a fantastic marketing vehicle for
diamonds," Fairevermark CEO and executive director De Beers, Stephen
Lussier told agencies.
"If I think about television, I may get your focus for 30 seconds or
20 seconds.Within that I may probably deliver one idea. But in
digital, I can engage you for an average of three minutes and I can
tell a lot more ideas within that three minutes," he said.
"The idea of digital is a fantastic tool. The challenge is, we have
to create enough interest, so that you can come. You need to be
extraordinarily creative (in digital mode)."
He said De Beers was looking at developing phone applicatons.
"Already we have an application for i-pads.. The challenge in mobile
phone space is that you have to make the content work in a smaller
space, than what you can do in PCs or even in tablets."
"But it looks like smartphone is the ticket in the market," he said.
Currently they were piloting in Hong Kong through smartphone where
if an individual downloads the mobile application and if one crosses
the Forevermark Club or a store, "it will tell you that shop has got
new Forevermark stones."
"You can use just less text and more visuals in a mobile phone. We
try to produce basic content globally and the key is you have to adopt
it in different market," he said.
Noting that the company spends about 15 per cent of its total budget
in marketing, Lussier said, "we are creating some new interesting
ideas for mobiles. I think it will be interesting making you to share
with your friends on the experience of a diamond. We are working on
that now. I think that will be a very big mobile market."
Responding to a query, he said there would be a 'price correction' on diamond in the coming months.
"I think we are going to see that. We hope to see some (price)
stability. Over the long run, we expect price of diamonds to rise each
year by even four to five per cent per annum," he said.
Observing that 'highly skilled artisans' were scarce for the diamond
industry,he said when they had an opportunity to hire 27 people in
Botswana, there were over 3000 applications.
"I think these opportunities were in administration, security,
skilled labour. But there is too much demand for skilled roles. Lot of
people apply, but they do not have the (required) skills," he said.
Referring to diamond production, Lussier said the next decade does
not look like the world would produce diamond more than it was in the
last 10 years.
"Mines are getting older and they produce less. The world's diamond
mines, in most cases, are 30 to 40 years old but big mines are
beginning to age. In the next few years, our major South African mines
will go underground. If you go underground, you produce less," he said.
Besides, he said some mines in Canada would probably be closed in the next decade as production is coming down.
"Obviously, we are looking at new mines. We are even opening a new
mine. We expect to mine in Canada and in the next three to four years,
we will go and employ," he said.
''The average diamond mines cost about a USD billion to build and it
is a very long term commitment and you have to wait for a long time,"
he said.
"The first 10 years, it is just like paying off, what you have
spent. The first diamond was (produced) in 1966 after five years of the
mines being opened. It is going to run for another 30 years.. so if
that works well, you can use it (mines) for 70 years. But it takes a
long time," he said.